The purpose of this proposal is to request funding for travel expenses, registration, and housing for graduate students and post-doctoral fellows who will be attending the "FASEB Summer Research Conferences on Microbial Polysaccharides of Medical, Agricultural, and Industrial Importance" June 5-9, 2004 in Tuscon, Arizona. This meeting is designed to bring together established and new investigators in the field of microbial polysaccharides to facilitate the exchange of new concepts in microbial pathogenesis and immunity, cell biology, plant pathology, environmental microbiology, metabolism, and gene regulation. Presently, few venues are available to promote the interactions of scientists from academia, industry, and government agencies in these diverse areas and this meeting provided this unique setting when last held in August 2000. Four years will have passed since the last meeting and many new advances, concepts, and techniques have been developed since that time in these areas of research. We have proposed eight scientific sessions that will cover in detail new topics and ideas that have emerged during this time. As at the last Microbial Polysaccharide meeting, the session topics and poster presentations will be organized to integrate these various topics, rather than to separate them. In addition, free time will be available before the afternoon poster session for informal social interactions in order to promote potential future collaborations between young investigators and those individuals more established in the field. We will also continue the tradition of selecting the best Abstracts from graduate students and post-doctoral fellows for oral presentations at the meeting. This will further encourage these important interactions. We have included women and minorities as speakers and session's chairs in the program and based on past meetings, a broad international contingent should be in attendance. This meeting will provide a unique environment for scientific exchange between a diverse group of investigators in the area of microbial polysaccharides.